Magazine : 
Air India will receive a new aircraft every six days for the next 18 months
A total of 470 planes have been ordered by Air India to serve the Indian economy, with a new plane expected to arrive every six days over the next 18 months, according to CEO and MD Campbell Wilson. He was speaking at the 67th Assembly of Presidents of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines. "We have new aircraft, we are recruiting many, many new crew and staff, improving the training regime and there is more work to do and we are making good progress", he said.
Speaking at a session, Wilson said a vast majority of Air India customers want reliability and punctuality, and the challenge is to satisfy customers' requirements. Moreover, new aircraft are being put on international flights and most of the grounded planes have been restored, Wilson added. Tata-owned Air India has ordered 470 aircraft to serve the Indian economy which is growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8 per cent and it is set to receive a new aircraft every six days over the next 18 months, he said.
He expressed confidence in competing with other airlines and increasing traffic for Air India. According to Subash Menon, director general of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines, the current air travel demand in India is 20 percent above the levels of 2019, as India reopened sooner. He also mentioned that the recovery of air travel in the Asia Pacific region, which is at 69 percent for the year up to September, trails behind other regions as the borders of the region reopened after the rest of the world.
But growth is still dramatic. Asia Pacific passenger traffic increased 171 percent over the same period in 2022, while capacity growth was slower by 130 percent. As air travel recovered later in Asia than other regions, many Asian airlines could not resume services to Europe to use slots as required by the EU, he added.
The loss of these air travel slots has a negative impact on the connectivity between the two regions. International air transport operates based on shared rules and norms established by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). Any deviation from this framework, whether it is unilateral or not, undermines its key pillars, which include safety, sustainability, security, and cross-border mobility.
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